


Change of perspective

by DarkNymfa



Series: Dark's FAHC Roleswap AU [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Fake AH Crew, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, RoleSwap Au, later chapters might be graphic, will add tags and characters as they become relevant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-02 21:09:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5263700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkNymfa/pseuds/DarkNymfa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A boss. A pilot. A mass-murderer. A hacker. A demolition expert. A sniper. The story of the Fake AH Crew as it started, but with a twist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Give me a sign

**Author's Note:**

> I don't do a lot of actual writing so this is pretty new to me tbh. I'm hoping to write a complete story from the begin of the crew until it includes all six of its main members, but we'll see how it goes. I planned this with Ray as one of the six, but I might switch him with Jeremy.
> 
> Chapter titles are based on song titles because I'm not good at naming stuff.  
> 

If anyone had ever told him that he would end up leading one of the biggest criminal organization that America, if not the world, would ever know, Gavin would have laughed. He would have ridiculed whoever told him that. He wasn’t fit to be leader, he was barely capable of taking care of himself.

Gavin Free was born in rainy Britain, had lived a fairly normal life. Even after moving to America with his parents, life was pretty average for Gavin.  
Except for that one guy.  
Gavin met the guy at school, and they got along incredibly well. They became friends quickly, and the guy often visited Gavin at his home to play video games together. Gavin asked to go to his house, but was always met with refusals and excuses. When he tried to push, the guy always got so angry and Gavin would just give up, if it was so important to the guy.  
Even after they finished school and went on to get jobs, they stayed in contact and often played video games together, even if the guy visited Gavin less and less. Slowly, little by little, the guy stopped visiting Gavin, and Gavin could feel their friendship crumbling. He started cherishing the few times they would play video games together.  
When the guy stopped coming online, it wasn’t much of a surprise to Gavin. His friend had simply gotten busy. He would be back when he had time again.

At some point, Gavin moved out to live on his own. His apartment was kind of shitty, but it was his own and he was proud of it. He had told his friend about the apartment, had even given him the address, but the guy had never visited him. Too busy, he simply said.  
So when late one night the doorbell rang, Gavin just wandered over, wondering who on Earth would visit him so late in the day, without a warning. And there, waiting, stood the guy. His friend, who Gavin hadn’t talked to in at least a couple of months, he realized.  
The guy remained silent, didn’t raise his head to look at Gavin’s face. He was wearing a hoodie, with the hood pulled over his head. When Gavin took too long to say anything, the guy rose his head slightly, but not far enough for Gavin to see his face.  
“So are you going to let me in, jackass?”  
Nodding slowly, he opened the door further to let his friend in. The guy wandered in, glanced around quickly, and then let himself fall onto Gavin’s couch, half-heartedly throwing the backpack he had been carrying on the floor.  
Closing the door, Gavin quietly followed him, then sat down next to him on the couch. They sat like that for what felt like forever, but what was probably only five minutes, before Gavin gave up on waiting for his friend to speak up.  
“Why are you here?”  
The man only grunted as an answer. Gavin turned to look at him, but the guy turned away, pulling his hood further over his face.  
“Come on Michael. Don’t be such a bloody prick!”  
“ _Come on Micool_ ,” the man just repeated with an over the top British accent, but he had turned to face Gavin again. His face remained hidden in the shadow of the hoodie, however.  
“I don’t sound like that!”  
A slightly amused huff from Michael.  
“Well, if you aren’t going to talk to me, then I guess we can play a game.” A beat. Gavin turned away from Michael to look at the television instead. “Like we used to.”  
“I would rather not.”  
“Well, why not? Are you gonna tell me why you’re here?”  
“What, can’t I visit a friend and hang around with him?”  
Gavin turned back to look at Michael.  
“Well, usually people don’t drop of the face of the Earth for a couple of months and then suddenly show up in the middle of the fucking night, _Michael_.”  
Michael visibly cringed at the way his name was said. Good, thought Gavin to himself. Serves him right for ignoring me.  
He didn’t feel quite as good about it when Michael curled up on himself, folding his legs and curling his arms around them.  
“It’s a long story.”  
“I don’t mind.”  
“And I would rather not tell it.”  
Michaels hood had sagged a little, and Gavin could finally see the face of his friend. He looked distressed, even panicked.  
The Michael he knew never looked like that.  
“Well…” Gavin looked back at the television, awkwardly. He had never been very good at comforting others.  
“Guess that I won’t get to kick your ass in Halo.”  
Michael laughed, sudden and loud.  
“Yeah right asshole, you never could do that anyway.”  
“Well, no need to be mean about it!”  
Michael’s laughing died down a little, but he kept silently chuckling to himself. Disgruntled, Gavin turned on the television. He didn’t like that Michael was making fun of him, but hearing him happy was pleasant after the distressed expression he had just seen.

Gavin zapped around a little, eventually settling on some generic action movie. It wasn’t very good, but it was amusing to look at and it filled the silence. Gavin settled in on the couch, making himself a little more comfortable. Michael stayed curled up, although he had unfurled a little to watch the movie.  
Gavin was glad to see that Michael seemed to have calmed down a little, his expression not panicked anymore.  
He remembers noticing that Michael had fallen asleep on the couch and that he turned the television off, but can’t remember falling asleep too, settled on the other end of the couch. Yet somehow he wakes up the next morning on the couch, Michael gone again.  
He gets up, worried, but almost immediately spots Michael in his kitchen and relaxes again. Michael had apparently heard him get up, because he turned around to greet him.  
“Morning Gav. I considered making breakfast for you but you only had bread.”  
Michael had taken off his hoodie, and for the first time in forever Gavin could take in the face of his friend in full detail. There were various bruises all over his face, and he even had a black eye. Gavin was kind of shocked that he hadn’t noticed it before, and Michael apparently had grown tired of his gawking because he turned away again.  
“So when are you going to tell me why you’re here?” Gavin could see Michael stiffen and immediately regretting bringing it up again. However, Michael didn’t get mad like he expected. He just turned around and looked… He looked kind of sad, really.  
“I’ll tell you after breakfast, okay? What do you want on your bread?”  
Gavin nodded, and then shrugged.  
“Whatever is left. I believe I’m running low on groceries again, as you might have noticed.”  
“Yeah, no shit. How are you so bad at taking care of yourself?”  
Gavin sniffed loudly, but couldn’t think of a reply that didn’t involve Michael’s appearance last night, and he felt like it would be mean to bring that up.

Breakfast was surprisingly normal. They sat mostly in silence, just the occasional remarks and teasing. After they finished the silence became tense. Eventually Michael slammed his hands on the table, suddenly looking furious.  
“My parents kicked me out, okay? I didn’t know where to go, and you were the only friend I ever had so I just hoped that I had remembered your address correctly.”  
Gavin could only look shocked, and when he tried to reply he could only squawk and spill gibberish. At least it made Michael laugh, which in turn made Gavin laugh too.  
“Dude, that didn’t even slightly resemble words. What the fuck man.”  
They laughed for a little longer before the silence and its awkwardness returned again.  
“So where did you get all those bruises? Some of those look really nasty.”  
Michaels expression darkens, and it becomes hard to read.  
“I did some things I’m not very proud of. It got out of hand yesterday and I was forced to flee.”  
“Like what?” Gavin’s mind immediately wandered, but before he could think of something he felt suited Michael the guy answered him.  
“I did some criminal stuff. Sold some drugs, killed some guys, stole some stuff. My parents found out and kicked me out, but not before beating the shit out of me. Not like that is anything new.”  
Michael’s expression had hardened and his voice had grown harsh with anger, the last words almost spat out like they were poison.  
Gavin found himself without words again, frustratingly enough. But he also felt something else. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it felt like some sort of protectiveness towards Michael. And somewhere, it faintly felt like pride too. He wasn’t sure why he felt like that though.  
“Well, you can stay here.” Seeing Michael’s frown, he quickly added. “As long as you want to, of course.”  
“Thanks man. I’ll search for a job, a legal one. You won’t have to take care of me like I’m some kind of man child.” Michael’s expression had lightened up once more, a big grin spreading on his face.  
“Good, because otherwise you’ll eat through what little money I have left!”  
“Gav, don’t be such a whiny bitch.”

They spend the rest of the day laughing, and bringing up some of their good memories. Michael got a job a week or so later, and while he could probably have moved out again, he didn’t. Gavin didn’t question the decision, it was nice to be with his friend again, even if they did fight over ridiculous things sometimes.

Weeks passed, and while Gavin didn’t really forget why his friend was living with him, he didn’t really think about it anymore. Until he came home from work to find Michael frantically packing his bag, a pistol in his hand which he aimed at Gavin when he heard footsteps. Seeing that it was just friend, he lowered the gun but didn’t put it away. Gavin felt the weird mix of pride and protectiveness bubble up again.  
“What is going on? Why are you packing your bag?”  
“They found me, I have to go. They’ll leave you alone, they aren’t interested in you.”  
“Who found you Michael?” Gavin could feel mild panic, but not nearly as much as he thought he should feel.  
“The gang whose deal I fucked up the day I came here. They found me and now they’re coming to kill me.”  
Somehow, Gavin knew that that would be the answer, so he immediately countered with a question he didn’t already know the answer to.  
“Where are you going?”  
Michael shrugged, and packed his last few possessions. He hadn’t bought a lot of stuff since he had arrived here, and Gavin realized he must have done so on purpose, so that he wouldn’t have extra stuff to take when he left. He seemed to avoid looking at Gavin.  
“Los Santos, I think. I heard that there are a lot of criminals around there, one more won’t make much of a difference.”  
“Then two won’t make much of a difference either.”  
The answer made Michael look around, finally facing Gavin again.  
“Dude, can you even fire a gun?”  
Gavin shrugged. “I can learn.”  
“You’re going to get yourself killed.”  
“And so are you! I won’t let you go off on your own to get yourself killed, at least let me try to help!”  
“Why? Why are you okay with all of this?! Why are you okay with coming with me even if it means you could die?!”  
“Because you’re my boi Michael! I’m going to die at some point in my life, so at least let me do so without regretting not going with you!”  
Michael’s expression became unreadable again, but when he spoke again it was clear that the anger had left him.  
“Fine. Pack only the essentials, and be as fast as possible. There isn’t much time left.”

It was not even 30 minutes later when they left the house. Michael had planned out which bus to take to the train station, and from there they could get a ride all the way to Los Santos. Gavin knew his life was going to change, but he could never have predicted how much it would.


	2. Up to no good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have come back from the land of Destiny to write this instead of studying.  
> Writing is still really hard. Plz give me critiques and stuff.

Life is Los Santos was tough. Gavin wasn’t sure why he had expected otherwise, since he had just abandoned not only his house, but his entire life.

Outside of the word tough, Gavin wasn’t sure how to describe the city where he had just moved to. It seemed like an ordinary big city to him. Busy streets, tall buildings. It didn’t seem like a criminal hot-spot. Maybe Michael and him could find regular jobs and start a normal life.

Of course, that turned out to be way harder than he thought. After renting a shitty apartment with the little money they had, they start running out of money fast. They look for real jobs, but soon the despair starts.

“Michael, what are you thinking about?”  
Michael visibly stiffens. Not a good sign, Gavin thinks to himself.  
“Nothing.” The man mutters, not looking up to face Gavin. He seems to be scribbling in a notebook of some sort.  
“What are you writing?” Gavin attempts to lean over Michael to look at the notebook, but loses his balance and instead topples over him with an indignant squawk.  
“Well alright, no need for that Gavvy.” Laughing loudly, Michael attempts to untangle the two of them with little success.  
“Come on Michael, don’t be such a nob.”  
Sighing loudly, Michael gave up on his attempts to untangle the two of them but still didn’t answer.  
“Please Michael!” Gavin could see Michael turning his head to look, and promptly gave him his best puppy-eyes. “I promise I won’t be mad!”  
Sighing again, Michael raised his hands to rub his eyes. “I’m not afraid that you’ll be mad.”  
“Then why are you not telling me?” He couldn’t help but let mild disappointment drip into his voice. Why was Michael not telling him what was going on?  
“Because I’m afraid that you’ll be disappointed!” The harsh words were snapped, but Michael didn’t quite sound angry. More... worried? Disappointed? Gavin wasn’t quite sure, but he did know that he disliked hearing it in the voice of his friend.  
“More disappointed than when you told me you got into criminal stuff? Please Michael, just tell me.” Seeing Michael’s eyes widen slightly as he turned to face him, Gavin suddenly realized what it had been.  
“Did you go back to the criminal side? Are you in trouble again?” He noticed that his voice was steadily rising in volume as he nearly shouted the last words at Michael, but he couldn’t help it, he was just so worried about his friend.  
Cringing at his shouting, Michael gave a half-hearted attempt at freeing himself from Gavin’s limbs, but failed once more. When he finally answered, the anger had left his voice completely.  
“No, I haven’t done anything yet.” Another sigh. “Just been thinking about it.”  
Starting to untangle himself from Michael, Gavin leaned over to peek at the notebook again, but he can’t read it from where he is. “What did you write down? Plans?”  
“Yeah, some rough ideas for robberies. Apparently stores are pretty easy to rob, and they earn you a decent buck so we could pay for the rent.”  
Having finished untangling himself, Gavin sat down properly. “I guess we have little choice.”  
A slightly amused huff from Michael. “We?”  
“Yeah, we! I won’t let you do that kind of dangerous stuff on your own!”  
“Dude, you can’t even shoot a gun. If you join you’ll just get yourself in trouble.”  
Spluttering indignantly, Gavin could feel himself going red. “Teach me, then. I won’t let you leave this apartment without me!”  
Michael rolled his eyes, but couldn’t leave the amusement out of his voice. “Fine, we’ll go to the shooting range tomorrow and I’ll teach you.”

And, true to his word, the next day they went to the shooting range. Michael taught Gavin how to shoot a simple pistol, which turned out to be way harder than Gavin was expecting. At the end of the day he still wasn’t a very good shot, but after laying down the money for a pistol and some ammo their wallets were looking very bare, so they decided to rob the store sooner rather than later.

There wasn’t much to plan for their robbery. Michael had done some research on which shops could conveniently be robbed, and they decided to rob one a little bit away from their apartment. They planned their route back home via some alleys, but left it mostly direct rather than zig-zag back home.  
Throughout the entire next day they talked the plan over and refined some of the details, including deciding who should demand the money from the shopkeeper (Michael) and who should check the store for others (Gavin).

The walk over was filled with silence. Michael had stolen before, but never from a store, and Gavin was worried about everything. About their plans, about unknowns such as the police, and most of all, he was worried about Michael. Well, not about Michael, he was worried for Michael, was worried that the man might get hurt.

It wasn’t until they arrived at the store that Gavin realized that he should probably have been more concerned about the fact that he was going to rob a store, that he was going to do something illegal, but for some reason he couldn’t bring himself to really care about it.

Michael entered the store first, pulling out his gun and pointing it at the shopkeeper. Gavin entered right after him and threw a bag at the shopkeeper before walking off to check the store for customers.  
“Alright man, you probably know the drill. Put the money in the bag and I won’t have to shoot you and do it myself.” Michael almost growled the words. The shopkeeper just looked kind of bored, but still did what was asked of him.  
Gavin soon returned and turned to watch the entrance, trusting Michael to be able to handle himself.

As soon as the shopkeeper was done putting the money in the bag, he handed it back over to Michael, who walked over to leave with Gavin while still keeping an eye on the shopkeeper to make sure he didn’t pull a gun on them. As he passed Gavin he handed the bag back over, receiving a silent nod from his friend before they both left.

Moving out on the streets and immediately into the alleys, the world was dark and noisy, as it always was in Los Santos. Gavin thought that it was weird that it was like it always was, like the night should acknowledge what had just happened, and somewhere along the line of his thoughts he decided that that must mean that this was normal. Maybe not yet, but it would become normal.  
He vaguely wondered what would make it sound different, but quickly discarded that thought when images of Michael hurt and dying came up. He decided to never discover what a night like that would sound like.

The walk back to their apartment was much like the walk to the store. Silent, filled with tension and unspoken worries. It wasn’t until Michael locked the door and Gavin threw the bag on the floor that the silence was broken. In the best way possible, of course.  
“We did it Gav! Bevs on me boi!” Michael opened the fridge and pulled out two beers, handing one off to Gavin who finally snapped out of his thoughts.  
“And it went exactly like we planned! No problems of any kind!” He watched Michael’s face light up in a smile, and they toasted their beers together.  
“To a successful heist!” Michael laughed. Widely grinning, Gavin added. “And many more like it!”  
Surprise rose on Michael’s face for a split-second, before being replaced with an even wider grin as his laugh rose in volume.  
“Fuck yeah! No more boring jobs and too little money for us!”

And true to their words, Gavin and Michael robbed various other stores and gas stations. After working out the original ideas that Michael had thought up, Gavin started coming up with the raw ideas, which they then worked out together. Well, mostly Michael just made them more reasonable. Gavin had some ridiculous ideas sometimes.

A couple months of working as a dynamic crime duo, Michael comes home to Gavin practically bouncing on the couch.  
“What’s up Gav? What are you excited about?”  
Smiling brightly, Gavin flies off the couch and pulls a blanket off of the wall that it had been pinned to. Michael wonders how he hadn’t noticed it before.  
Underneath the blanket, a big sheet of paper with heist plans is pinned up. Michael can immediately tell that it’s way more complicated than their usual plans, and as he moves closer, he realizes that there are three colors of arrows, rather than the usual two.  
“Gav, why are you referring to three people? Do you even know someone to work with?”  
The sound of awkwardly shuffling feet is enough of an answer.  
“Well, we need someone to do the explosives too, so I figured that they might as well help during the heist.”  
“We need _WHAT_?!”


	3. Broken crown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Introduction of the next of the AH guys. ;p I'm gonna add all six that will join the crew to the tags but we won't be seeing some of them until later.
> 
> Overall I have mixed feelings about this chapter. It's different than planned (I was going to include the heist and was going to skip the bit in the parking garage). Still, I like how the inner thinkings worked out, but I'm not a big fan of the dialogue. As always, critique and advice are very welcome!

One thing that Gavin and Michael had learned very quickly is that while traffic sucks, driving is better than walking in Los Santos. Pedestrians are vulnerable to all kinds of evil, such as pickpockets and drunk drivers.

So, as soon as money isn’t so tight they can’t afford their rent, the dynamic duo buy a car to get around the city. A small Blista, an awful shade of purple that Gavin loves and Michael hates, and in such a rough shape that it’s a miracle the car still drives. But it does, and it was cheap, and it’s better than walking in this godforsaken city.

The purple car becomes a safe place whenever they leave their apartment. A little constant in their lives, somewhere where they can sit peacefully and just talk. Ignore the turn their lives have taken.

Looking back, seeing a mostly busted car as a safe place probably wasn’t very smart. Even if the car itself was safe, it was terrifyingly easy to _make_ it unsafe.

It was just after dinner time, and Gavin and Michael were returning to their car. It was a couple days after Gavin had revealed his heist plans, and it still formed the start of a lot of their squabbling. Gavin insists that they can totally pull of the heist, but Michael keeps reminding him of the fact that they don’t know any demolition experts to help with the explosives.

It is likely a combination of their discussion and the safety of their car that made them forget about the potential danger that always lies waiting in Los Santos.

As Gavin approaches the car to unlock it, Michael notices a small red light blinking underneath the car. Focus immediately shifted to the current moment instead of the discussion, he hears a faint beeping. His mind connects the two almost instantly, and he finds himself grabbing Gavin’s shirt by reflex.

Pulling the other man away from the car, he pushed him down on the ground and dropped on top of him. Suddenly the air around him became hot, so hot it felt like his lungs were burning and the world went so so quiet all of a sudden and he saw nothing but white and god it hurt to breathe and he bitterly thought to himself “who will protect Gavin when I die?” and kicked himself mentally because he wasn’t going to die, fuck that.

The world faded from white to black, and the silence was replaced by a high pitched ringing noise. Michael instantly misses the silence, but finds that the darkness goes away as he blinks a few times, and suddenly everything was better when he could see Gavin lying underneath him, safe and seemingly unhurt, although his eyes had gone so big it looked like they might pop out of Gavin’s skull any moment.

The ringing in Michael’s ears finally softened and went away, and he sat up slowly and looked around. The car was scorched black, the glass shattered and Michael could feel some of the shards that landed on him fall off and he stood up fully.

Extending his hand to Gavin and helping him up, Michael looked around to find the person behind the bomb.

He didn’t know a lot about explosives, but it seemed like this one must have been triggered by a person, since they hadn’t done anything that might have triggered it otherwise. Maybe if they had opened the door or unlocked the car, but they hadn’t done any of that yet, and motion sensors would have been triggered by passerbies too.

Once Gavin had stood up, he started dusting himself off, still looking fairly dazed, like he was still trying to realize what just happened.

Now that the immediate danger had gone away, Michael could feel burning anger creeping in. He decides that the best way to vent it is to find the culprit, and storms off to check the environment.

He finds what he was looking for almost immediately, hiding in a nearby alley. Sitting on the ground, with his back pressed to a wall, is a man giggling to himself like a madman, holding a detonator.

It didn’t seem like he had noticed Michael, because when Michael walked up and loudly coughed, the man visibly jumped.

Grinning widely, Michael cracked his knuckles and looked the man right in the eyes.

“Hey motherfucker, too bad you didn’t blow us up too because I’m gonna make you regret blowing up our car.”

Staring back, the man looked like he was about to reach for a weapon and Michael couldn’t wait to plant his fist on the other’s face, when suddenly-

“Hey! Both of you, stop!”

And as demanded, both Michael and the stranger stopped moving, Michael dropping his grin and the stranger with his hand stopped mid-air.

Gavin had entered the alley too, cutting a strangely impressive figure despite being covered in soot. He started walking over, and Michael glanced back to the stranger, who still hadn’t moved and whose eyes were glued to Gavin.

“What’s going on here?”

“Well, this motherfucker over here,” Michael turned and looked at the stranger, “blew up our car and almost killed us.”

Gavin closed the distance between him and the others, and sunk down to look the sitting stranger in the eye.

“Did he? Why?”

The stranger blinked twice, looking like he suddenly snapped out of a spell, and stammered out something that only slightly resembled an answer.  
“Well- Uh- You see... It’s… Uh-“

“Jesus Christ, use some actual fucking words. You’re worse than fucking Gavin and at least half of the words he uses aren’t real.”

“Michael!”  
“Mi-cool!” Parroted Michael, whose eyes moved back to Gavin as he was speaking.

The sound of shoes scraping over concrete made both Michael and Gavin look back at the stranger, who immediately froze again. They stood like that for a long moment, and it was Gavin who broke it.

“So, you didn’t answer my question. Why did you blow up our car?”

“Well, uh.” Stammered the guy, as Michael moved to stand behind Gavin, looming with unconcealed anger.

“It wasn’t personal! I just, y’know, I get a kick out of blowing stuff up.”

“So you fucking blew up our car?! Instead of, I don’t know, blowing up something else?”

“Like what?!” The stranger frowned, waving around with his arms wildly, like his words couldn’t contain how annoyed and aggravated he was.

“Like a jewelry store.”

Realizing what Gavin was thinking off, Michael reached out and grabbed his friend’s shoulder.

“No. We’re not gonna fucking take a guy who tried to blow us up with us to a jewelry store.”

“Michael, you’re not the boss of me. It’s my idea, I can invite whoever I want!”

“Dude, stop being such a dumb shit. You don’t even know this dude.”

“Because obviously hiring someone we don’t know at all is better. At least we know that this guy can actually blow shit up properly.” Gavin turned to look at the stranger again.  
“Well, what do you think? Would you be interested in hitting a jewelry store with us?”

“I guess? Do you have a plan of some sort?”

Gavin’s face crumpled into a wide smile, and Michael groaned and planted his face in hand as he realized he had lost this fight.

“Yeah! I got the whole thing planned out, we just needed a third person to help during the heist, and who knows about explosives so we don’t accidentally blow ourselves up.”

“Sure, why not. If I get a third of the take I’m in.”

“Sweet! Let’s meet up in the parking garage near Power Street, on the top level. Let’s say tomorrow at 11 in the morning? We can talk through the plan and pick a moment to do the actual thing.”

“Okay”

The man stood up, and brushed himself off slightly, then nodded towards both of them and walked past them, out of the alley. He had almost reached the end before he turned to look at them again.

“Oh, and my name is Ryan by the way. Nice to meet you.”

And then he walked out of the alley and around the corner, and Michael and Gavin were alone. Michael used this moment of peace to punch Gavin in his arm, rewarding him with a bird-like squawk.

“You fucking idiot, you can’t trust that guy! He tried to blow us up!”

Rubbing over his arm and pouting at Michael, Gavin looked like a beaten puppy, and Michael could feel his anger melt away.

“Come on Michael, even if he’s an asshole he will play along for the money. And if not, you can protect me, right boi?”

Michael sighed, but didn’t continue the conversation as he gently grabbed Gavin’s shoulder.

“Come on, let’s go home. We gotta walk all the way back now, remember?”

 

The next morning, they arrived at the designated spot only a couple minutes late, which was surprisingly little since both of them had forgotten that their car was blown up.

Ryan was already waiting for them, sitting on the hood of a sleek black sports car. He looked like he wasn’t expecting them to actually show up, mild surprise showing on his face as Gavin and Michael approached him.

“Ah, so you did come.”

“Yeah, we’re just a little late because someone blew up our car.”

Michael didn’t quite get the answer that he was hoping for, as Ryan only shrugged and then looked at Gavin.

“So boss-man, what’s the plan?”

Reaching over his shoulder, Gavin pulled out the blueprint with the plan and unrolled it. Ryan stood up and the two of them flattened the paper on the hood of Ryan’s car.

“Alright, so as we’ll enter the store simultaneously, guns raised to intimidate. Michael will stand guard, he’ll keep an eye on everyone and make sure no one calls the police or stops us.” His finger traced a red arrow that led to the middle of the store.

“You, Ryan, the demolition expert, will set small explosives on the locked jewelry cases. You blow those up without damaging the goods, and take as much as you can carry.” As his finger traced the blue arrow, he looked over to the man and received a nod.

“I will go for the lesser jewelry cases, those that aren’t locked and those that can easily be broken to steal the stuff in it.” His fingers traced the last arrow, the green that snaked past the majority of the cases.

“We keep going until we have all the jewelry, or until the situation gets out of control. I trust Michael to have our backs, but if the police comes or people start pulling guns we’ll go for safety rather than cash. When we leave, we all get in a single getaway vehicle and either go here to split the take, or we go north until we lose the cops and we’ll improvise the rest. Are there any questions?”

“Nah, I got it. Sounds pretty thought out, I like it. When are you planning on doing the hit?”

“If you have time, what about this Thursday? That gives you about two days to prep, if that’s enough for your explosives.”

“Yeah, two days is plenty, especially for such low-caliber bombs. Do you want to meet here so we can take the same vehicle there, which we can use as the getaway vehicle too?”

“Sounds good. Michael, are you fine with doing it Thursday?”

“Yeah, sounds fine.” When Gavin turned to look at Michael, the man wasn’t looking at him but rather staring at the car, as if he was contemplating denting it in revenge for their car. He seemed to decide against it though, as he turned around and starting walking back to the elevator of the parking garage.

“Well, I guess that the meeting is over. You want to meet here Thursday at the same time? I’ll bring a car we can use as getaway vehicle.”

Gavin nodded towards Ryan, glanced back and saw that Michael had almost reached the elevator, and then ran off to chase said man, shouting a quick goodbye as he grabbed the blueprint and left.

And so Ryan was standing there, wondering why on Earth he agreed to work with Michael and Gavin. Something about them had seemed right to him, something about the authority that Gavin wielded so effortlessly, and something about how Michael seemed so eager to protect Gavin, and somehow it called to him. Called to him and made him think about a crew with those two.

The idea seemed to foreign, so far-fetched, yet somehow it worked in his minds eye. He could see Gavin leading an entire crew of people with the same natural laid-back authority, could see him building a crew of people he could trust and rely on. He could see Michael having Gavin’s back, see him help structure a crew under Gavin’s command.

And for some reason, it resonated with Ryan. Because he could see not only those two, but he could also see himself. See himself working with Michael and Gavin, elaborate plans with fickle explosives and he could see the trust between all of them as they planned together.

And suddenly Ryan was struck by a longing that he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. A longing that last time he felt it, he was watching as a building exploded and collapsed with a weird gracefulness Ryan had never seen before then.

And Ryan hoped that Michael and Gavin would come to realize their potential, that the crew that Ryan longed for would exist.

That his crew would exist.


	4. Conquistador

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned on adding more to this chapter, but after sitting on this part for over two weeks I've decided to just cut it and make that bit a new chapter, which will also allow for more writing room so I won't feel forced to make it shorter.
> 
> I've also started working on a new FAHC AU fanfic, but I'm gonna write at least part of it, if not all of it, before I start posting it. It will probably be called Eunoia and it'll star most of AH, with the focus on Jeremy.

The next two days passed in a blur, and before Gavin knew it, he was standing next to Michael and Ryan on top of the parking garage. Ryan had brought a different car, a generic 4-doors, which admittedly was a lot more inconspicuous than the sports car that Ryan had brought the last time.

They all piled into the car, with Ryan driving and Michael and Gavin in the back. Michael checked the bullets in his gun, despite having already done that at least 3 times more that day, and then demanded that Gavin handed over his gun so he could check that one too. From where he was sitting, Gavin couldn’t see Ryan, but he was sure that the man was smiling at Michael’s motherly instincts.

Gavin considered going through the plan again while they were driving, but the ride was too short so he didn’t bother. Instead, he decided to ask Ryan if he was ready, and more importantly, if his bombs were ready. His answer was just a shrug, and a mumble that might have been something along the lines of “you bet your ass they are” but Gavin wasn’t sure if he had actually heard that or imagined it.

 

After that they travelled in silence until they reached the store, and Ryan parked the car right next to it. Michael had placed Gavin’s gun on his duffel bag, having checked it at least 3 more times during the car ride, and Ryan grabbed a backpack, zipping it open to pull out a small automatic gun.

Nodding to each other, they all left the car and walked to the store, all alert and with their guns raised, and Michael in front. Kicking open the door, he immediately yelled out.

“Everybody down on the floor! Don’t do anything stupid and no one gets hurt!”

Scanning around the room while he yelled, Michael spotted two employees and three customers in the jewelry store, but no guards. Scoffing at the lack of security, he watched as the five seemingly unarmed people laid down with their hands visible.

Nodding towards Michael, Gavin ran over to the closest display and clubbed it with the butt of his gun. The glass shattered and Gavin quickly started grabbing the jewelry inside to stuff it in his bag. He glanced over and saw Ryan planting small explosives, and saw Michael glaring around. Relieved to see that everything was going to plan, he moved over to continue his part of the job.

The sounds of an explosion ripped through the air, quickly followed by at least 2 explosions more. Glancing over, Gavin could see Ryan holding something in his hand, probably a detonator. Michael had looked too, but quickly turned back to keep an eye on the hostages.

Grabbing the last jewelry in the case, Gavin straightened out and looked around properly to check if he had missed any cases. As he had thought, he had indeed retrieved the goods from all of them, and it seemed like Ryan was just grabbing the last stuff from the cases he blew up. He caught Michael’s eye and nodded towards the door. Michael nodded in response, having understood the message.

Seeing Ryan grab the last piece of jewelry, he repeated the motion and got another nod in return. He started making his way back to the front of the store, Ryan following him while Michael remained in the middle of the store with his gun trained on the hostages. Reaching the door, he turned back to call for Michael to follow them, but was interrupted as a gun went off. Immediately tense, he squinted until he noticed that it had been Michael who had shot, one of the hostages lying on the floor with a pool of blood that steadily grew in size. Michael scoffed, a scowl on his face as he stared at the remaining four hostages.

“Now stay the fuck down unless you want to get shot too, you fucks.”

He walked to the front of the store, clapping Gavin on his shoulder, and the three of them left, Ryan keeping an eye on the store behind them to make sure no one shot them in the back.

They loaded into the car, once again with Ryan behind the wheel and the other two in the back, with Gavin’s duffel bag in between them and with Ryan’s backpack in the front. Glancing inside the bag, Michael couldn’t help but grin widely, the success of the heist making him giddy.

“Fuck man, that went really well! I can’t fucking believe that went this smoothly!”

“I think we got lucky, honestly. The alarm didn’t go off so the police didn’t know.” Ryan kept his eyes on the road, making it impossible for Michael to tell what exactly he was thinking.

“Fuck you Ryan, cheer up a little. We could have dealt with the popo, they got nothing on us!”

Ryan snorted, and when he answered it sounded like he was smiling. “Alright, alright, it went well and we probably made some good money. Happy now?”

Michael shrugged, his previously giddy grin now twisted into something more mischievous. “I don’t know, maybe we should ask the boss-man. What do you think, Gavin?”

“Well,” Gavin said, sitting up straighter and placing his hands together in a somewhat excited movement. “I think we should go celebrate!”

Ryan glanced over his shoulder to raise an eyebrow at Gavin, then turned back to keep his eyes on the road. “Yeah? What are you thinking for a celebration?”

Michael huffed, clearly getting annoyed again. “Usually we go to a bar to grab drinks, or buy some and drink them at our place.”

“Yeah?” Ryan hummed, pausing a moment before continuing. “Too bad I don’t drink.”

“Oh!” Gavin practically squawked, surprising the others and causing Ryan to swerve a little. “I know what we can do! Let’s go to the pier! We can have fun together, and Michael and I can grab drinks if we want to!”

“Are you sure you want to invite me to that?” Ryan asked, confusion lacing his words. While he wanted to get closer to the others, he could almost feel Michaels stare against the back of his head, which made it hard to forget that they barely knew each other.

“Yeah! I mean, if you want to work with us more often we should learn to know each other a little better, right? Create some trust between us three and all of that!” The tone of Gavin’s voice had changed, an unspoken challenge hung in the air, but Ryan wasn’t sure if it was towards him or Michael.

“Are you implying we should work with him more? Dude, we were fine with just the two of us! No need to drag in some guy we barely know, even if this heist went well!” It sounded like Michael shifted in his seat, probably to poke Gavin in the chest, although Ryan had to keep his eyes on the road so he couldn’t look.

“ _Mi-cool_! We’re a good team, but imagine what we could do with the three of us!” Gavin’s voice had lost the challenging undertone as he whined like a puppy. Ryan had to admit, Gavin was good with playing into other’s emotions.

“Fuck it, if this goes to shit I’m blaming you.” Leaning forwards, Michael got as close to Ryan as possible in the car without completely getting out of his seat. “And for you, I still haven’t forgiven you for blowing up our fucking car. So you better believe I will be wary of you.” He squinted angrily at Ryan before sitting back down again.

“Wouldn’t have expected otherwise, honestly. I don’t think I could work with people who are willing to blindly trust anyone who almost killed them.” Ryan answered, lifting his shoulders in a half-hearted shrug. “Do you want to split the goods and meet up later at the pier or something?”

“I guess so. Let’s go to the parking garage again, since that seems to have become somewhat of a standard spot for us.” Gavin glanced over to Michael to see if he agreed, but the man kept his gaze trained on Ryan. When he noticed Gavin’s staring, he gave a curt nod.

 

After arriving at their usual meeting spot on top of the parking garage, the three stepped out of the car and laid the bags on the hood of the car, opened and with some of the contents spilling out. There was a lot more jewelry than Gavin had expected, and it was all so pretty that he found it hard to accept that he couldn’t just keep it all.

Ryan started rummaging through his backpack, pulling out various pieces of expensive-looking jewelry and staring at it as if he was hoping it would tell him how much it was worth. Michael had finally removed his gaze from Ryan and had started grabbing jewelry from Gavin’s duffel bag, but seemed to be equally baffled by their prices.

“So,” Gavin started, catching the attention of the others. “It looks like no one here knows how much this stuff is worth.”

“We should have stolen the price tags while we were there.” Michael commented, and immediately followed it up with a heated glance towards Ryan when he laughed.

“Here’s what I suggest. Does anyone know how to get buyers for this stuff?” Gavin clapped his hands together and looked at the other two expectantly, but Ryan just shook his head.

“I think I know some guys. They can at least tell us what it’s worth, and they might even buy it from us, although I’m not sure if that’s a good idea since they might lowball us to get it for cheap.” Michael shrugged half-heartedly.

“Well, that’s a good start! How about we take all the jewelry to them, and then we either sell it to them and split the money, or find a way to split it equally between the three of us? If the three of us go, we can all be sure that it’s okay and split fairly.”

“It’s going to be a few days before we can meet them, at best. They might not even be able to look at our jewelry any time soon.” Michael grunted.

“So what will we do with the jewelry until then? Try to split it somewhat evenly and then meet again once Michael sets up a meeting with them?” Ryan hummed thoughtfully.

“I guess so, if no one objects to that. Michael?” Michael shook his head, and Gavin shrugged. “Guess that’s it, then. Let’s split the jewelry.”

 

In the end, it took them almost an hour before they were all okay with the way the jewelry was split. Michael kept fussing over the amount that Ryan was taking, constantly disagreeing with him on everything, and only when Gavin decided it was fair did he shut up.

They decided to meet up at 7PM at the entrance of the Pleasure Pier, and like that they were off, Gavin and Michael once again leaving on foot, but now also carrying a heavy duffer bag filled with stolen jewelry.


End file.
